I would disagree. I had this exact same discussion with one of my bosses 7 years ago when he was critical about which guns guys were using. Bolt guns instead of SR25's.
When you can shoot a rapid fire string of 10rds sitting, slung in 10 secs at 300yds, which requires a 4rd reload in a BDL, you can run a bolt pretty efficiently. A good bolt gun shooter can cycle the bolt inside the follow through and recovery of a gas gun shooter. But the gas gun shooter has to be much more diligent about his wobble zone, follow through and recovery because of the increased lock time. The only advantage is the 20 rd mag. That's where the "firepower" comes from.
But here's the irony. When we started teaching snaps and movers with SR25's we were exceeding Knight's rate of fire. Just the target array, engagement time, and firing table was too fast for their recommended rate of fire. And you can really see the degradation of M110's after a couple of thousand rounds. They do not deal with heat well.
So ostensibly a gasser offer's more "firepower". IMO, it just has a bigger mag.
I’ve read numerous first hand accounts of m110s with faulty barrels, shot out at like 500-1000 rounds along with issues with “rapid-fire” strings, now including yours (that sucks). My understanding was that issue was much more prevalent in earlier M110 prod lots / barrels but KAC had made changes that brought down the frequency of those problems as time went on (please correct me if Im wrong about that). I believe its still in service if not active procurement but perhaps its being phased out by the CSASS - don’t know.
My statement comes from my own first hand experiences working with my m40A5 and mk11 mod 0 clones, as well as my other similar rifles (MWS, EMR) over the years engaging multiple steel targets under time, most of them 800m and in.
four assumptions (which in my case are true):
1). Shooter is equally proficient with
making hits via the gas and bolt gun
2). Same load (handloads using the 175 smk in my case)
3). One hit per target is sufficent
4). Optics are similar (two SBs in my case)
If im engaging 20 targets (all differing distances from the FFP) , i have 20 rounds before reloading in the mk11 whereas the A5 im reloading once mid-stream and 4+1 BDL im reloading 4x as often. Im nowhere near as fast reloading a BDL as some folks and even the DBM reloads (which are comparatively super fast by comparison) still take extra time.
Also, working the bolt (at least at my skill level) takes longer for me than waiting for the gas gun’s reciprocating mass to cease so that i can prepare for the next shot. I consider myself middle of the road when it comes to bolt manipulation and can manage recoil fairly well.
Ive never really ran my mk11 like it was a small frame carbine or done what most would consider full-on mag dumps with it but i have strung together 30-40 shots in short time under relatively high heat (im in Vegas) with the can multiple times and havent noticed any decline in its performance (thank God). I can say that while hit probably is the same, i have always been faster with the gas gun out to 800 beyond which I hardly ever shoot either of them.
Admittedly ive never compared the two rifles head to head via 10 shot strings on targets at the same distance (200-300m) - perhaps ill give that a try soon and see if I notice anything, particularly from the mk11 (im assuming you’re ralking about engaging 10 small targets, one round per at that distance)
Personal experience plays the biggest role in shaping our decisions so for me, I’d always pick the gas gun simply based on mine. However In thinking about what you’ve seen and described above, I totally understand why you’d opt for the bolt gun. And I’d prob do the same if my gas gun performance / reliability went down the tubes like that on a regular basis.
